Standing the Test of Time

[LilMaibe]

DW-DW Crossover I think my brain just exploded.

There are several fanfictions...few are good...

[shegallivants]

But that's always the case. The process of finding good fic invariably involves a great deal of internet trawling. Anyone here read fanfiction? We can swop recs!

To be honest, I don't really read much Discworld fanfiction. I find the style of writing crucial to DW, and most people produce pale, strangled imitations of PTerry's work. It's not like HP or Sherlock, which are forgiving to a great many individual voices. PTerry has stamped his hand so thoroughly on DW that I generally find it painful to read DW fanfiction).

[Quatermass]

But that's always the case. The process of finding good fic invariably involves a great deal of internet trawling. Anyone here read fanfiction? We can swop recs!

To be honest, I don't really read much Discworld fanfiction. I find the style of writing crucial to DW, and most people produce pale, strangled imitations of PTerry's work. It's not like HP or Sherlock, which are forgiving to a great many individual voices. PTerry has stamped his hand so thoroughly on DW that I generally find it painful to read DW fanfiction).

TBH, I usually don't, mostly for the reasons that searching for good fanfiction is rather like searching through a cesspit for a few diamond rings. That being said, I recently read two short pieces of Discworld fanfiction, as well as the excellent and funny Evangelion fanfic Nobody Dies, and the Firefly/Doctor Who crossover The Man With No Name.

[LilMaibe]

But that's always the case. The process of finding good fic invariably involves a great deal of internet trawling. Anyone here read fanfiction? We can swop recs!

To be honest, I don't really read much Discworld fanfiction. I find the style of writing crucial to DW, and most people produce pale, strangled imitations of PTerry's work. It's not like HP or Sherlock, which are forgiving to a great many individual voices. PTerry has stamped his hand so thoroughly on DW that I generally find it painful to read DW fanfiction).

You'll laugh: There are some good ones out there, no worries.
But at the same time there are quite a bunch where you want to take the wrting prog away from the fic's author...*shudders*

[deldaisy]

But that's always the case. The process of finding good fic invariably involves a great deal of internet trawling. Anyone here read fanfiction? We can swop recs!

To be honest, I don't really read much Discworld fanfiction. I find the style of writing crucial to DW, and most people produce pale, strangled imitations of PTerry's work. It's not like HP or Sherlock, which are forgiving to a great many individual voices. PTerry has stamped his hand so thoroughly on DW that I generally find it painful to read DW fanfiction).

TBH, I usually don't, mostly for the reasons that searching for good fanfiction is rather like searching through a cesspit for a few diamond rings. That being said, I recently read two short pieces of Discworld fanfiction, as well as the excellent and funny Evangelion fanfic Nobody Dies, and the Firefly/Doctor Who crossover The Man With No Name.

But isn't that the case with all books? Or do you only read known authors... that way you miss out discovering a new author.. or a book that only YOU seem to have discovered and can share like showing a friend a diamond YOU dug from the ground yourself

[Quatermass]

But isn't that the case with all books? Or do you only read known authors... that way you miss out discovering a new author.. or a book that only YOU seem to have discovered and can share like showing a friend a diamond YOU dug from the ground yourself

True, Del, it does take me time to find and enjoy new authors. I rarely accept recommendations, although I do occasionally. One of the few times a recommendation turned out to be spectacularly spot-on was when one of my friends recommended the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.

I also use Wikipedia and Tv Tropes to find books with similar themes to ones that I already enjoy. The point I'm trying to make is that it does take time for me to enjoy something new, but I do in the end.

[Dotsie]

Interesting - I very often take other's recommendations, but if it's crap I don't get past the first few pages as I don't have time. But I wouldn't want to get stuck with blinkers on by not giving them a try in the first place. This is why I love the library.

[Quatermass]

Interesting - I very often take other's recommendations, but if it's crap I don't get past the first few pages as I don't have time. But I wouldn't want to get stuck with blinkers on by not giving them a try in the first place. This is why I love the library.

I basically assume that everything's crap until I decide, on my own terms, to try it. In fact, I think it might have been seeing the animated version of Soul Music when I was in high school that got me interested in the Discworld series. And it took ages of family friends nagging me to get me to try Monty Python.

[Dotsie]

Well that just seems a bit silly. Why should you ignore the recommendations of others? I wouldn't like a book just because someone tells me I should - everyone likes books on their own terms. But it doesn't mean you deliberately shouldn't try it because someone else found it first.

As a scientist, would you ignore all research that wasn't your own? If someone tells you about a recently published journal article, would you refuse to read it?

[meerkat]

I agree Dotsie.If some one told me there was a good Viking book out there, I'd read it, or at least look through it, and form my own opinion.

Suggestions are just that, "Why don't you TRY...." and using a library you can suss out the books and if you don't like it, can't hack reading it, you can ignore it. Not everyone loves the same thing but you can appreciate thier choices. Wonderful books can be discovered just by being suggested.

It took me twenty years to get into Terry Pratchett (if you pardon the expression) due to a friend who thought I'd like a sci fi book. Then I was hooked.

[Quatermass]

Well that just seems a bit silly. Why should you ignore the recommendations of others? I wouldn't like a book just because someone tells me I should - everyone likes books on their own terms. But it doesn't mean you deliberately shouldn't try it because someone else found it first.

It's more of a case that I don't like people recommending things and saying that I'd like it. Only I am the judge of that, and I will get around to reading what they recommend when I feel like it. It took me ages to get onto Neil Gaiman, for example, or Eoin Colfer. I didn't get into the Harry Potter series until after book 3 or 4 were out.

I guess it's just being uncomfortable going outside my comfort zone. I do it at my own pace. Ignoring people's recommendations isn't quite the right term. Deferring them is more of the case, unless it's, say, in a genre I know I wouldn't like.

As a scientist, would you ignore all research that wasn't your own? If someone tells you about a recently published journal article, would you refuse to read it?

That is both a silly suggestion, Dotsie, and almost completely unconnected. If someone told me about a relevant journal article to my research, of course I would read it. To not do so would be to invite disaster. In fact, I'm fairly good at reviewing the literature. I just wish that I had a job that would allow me to demonstrate that.

[WannabeAngua]

I inherit my fathers paperbacks after he's finished with them. Usually get a bag full every time he and my mother visit.
This is how i discovered John Connolly, whom I love reading, and now I preorder all his books, and my father can borrow them from me.

I usually find out pretty fast whether a book is worth reading or not, and the books I don't like I give away to fleemarkets. Someone else might enjoy a book I've rejected.

[Dotsie]

As a scientist, would you ignore all research that wasn't your own? If someone tells you about a recently published journal article, would you refuse to read it?

That is both a silly suggestion, Dotsie, and almost completely unconnected.

Of course it isn't a silly suggestion, neither is it unconnected. I was pointing out that being deliberately ignorant (which is silly) is a barrier to bettering yourself. Of course a scientist wouldn't deliberately ignore someone else's suggestions, so why should it be acceptable for someone who isn't a scientist to do so? And why should you know what's a good book and what isn't without even reading it?

[Willem]

That is both a silly suggestion, Dotsie, and almost completely unconnected. If someone told me about a relevant journal article to my research, of course I would read it. To not do so would be to invite disaster. In fact, I'm fairly good at reviewing the literature. I just wish that I had a job that would allow me to demonstrate that.

It's not that silly really.
On the one hand you have a friend or relative who probably knows what you like and dislike recommending something you might like too.
On the other you have a colleague who knows your area of expertise recommending something to expand your knowledge in that area.

Both take their prior knowledge of you and your interest and make suggestions to help you out. One on the personal field, helping you relax and enjoy things. One on the professional field, helping you do your job better.

It seems like you think that nobody can possibly know you well enough to know what you like - and to make that point you purposely reject their recommendations. You are indeed the judge of liking something. But people that know you CAN have a good idea if you'll like something too.
Taking more recommendations from people will undoubtedly lead to your reading more crap than before. It will also lead you to books, shows and movies that you could have found yourself, but weeks/months/years before you would have. And it might lead you to gems you'd never have discovered yourself!
Plus, it's more sociable These recommendations are made to help you enjoy yourself, not as a 'Ha-ha, I've found something cool before you found it yourself'. Get off that high horse, mingle with the commoners. It makes life a lot easier for both yourself and the plebs around you

[Quatermass]

As a scientist, would you ignore all research that wasn't your own? If someone tells you about a recently published journal article, would you refuse to read it?

That is both a silly suggestion, Dotsie, and almost completely unconnected.

Of course it isn't a silly suggestion, neither is it unconnected. I was pointing out that being deliberately ignorant (which is silly) is a barrier to bettering yourself. Of course a scientist wouldn't deliberately ignore someone else's suggestions, so why should it be acceptable for someone who isn't a scientist to do so? And why should you know what's a good book and what isn't without even reading it?

It is not being deliberately ignorant. And the reason why it is unconnected is that what I do with my own personal reading material is my own business, whereas I am obviously required to explore as many avenues as possible as a scientist. There is a difference between staying in my comfort zone and being wilfully ignorant.

In fact, one of the reasons why I did my first book-reading blogs elsewhere was to try and force myself to expand my horizons, by reading and finishing at least one book that I hadn't read per week. Without that motivation, I would never have started reading Dickens seriously, or reading the noted Victorian horror novels like Dracula, Frankenstein, or The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I would not have read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

The point I am trying to make is that I choose when to try something new. It is one of my little idiosyncracies.

Can we please drop the issue already? Otherwise I know that there'll be hurt feelings in the end, or more than before, and I want to avoid that on both sides.